The Record: Weinstein departs

UNLIKE RAIL and bus commuters, NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein controls his departure time. The much-criticized transit leader announced Tuesday that he will leave March 2. His exit is long overdue.

During Weinstein's tenure, NJ Transit lost a third of its fleet of railcars and engines during Superstorm Sandy. NJ Transit left an estimated $120 million in rolling stock in flood-prone areas and suffered catastrophic losses, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority prepared for the same storm and suffered little loss of equipment.

Weinstein also failed to adequately prepare for New Jersey's first mass-transit Super Bowl, underestimating the potential crowds by tens of thousands. Fans spent hours getting to MetLife Stadium and hours trying to leave the game.

Through it all, Weinstein remained untouchable. Governor Christie sang Weinstein's praises to The Record's editorial board last fall, blaming the loss of rail equipment on a low-level manager. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has been equally appreciative of Weinstein's leadership.

We have never questioned Weinstein's likability factor; we just didn't think it was a good enough reason to put the same person who led the Whitman administration's misguided embrace of Parsons Infrastructure and Technology to run auto inspections in New Jersey in charge of the state's mass transit.

Yet for some reason, Weinstein stayed in place, just like those ill-fated railcars and engines surrounded by floodwaters. In announcing his replacement, Christie did not heap praise on Weinstein. But the governor called Veronique "Ronnie" Hakim, who will next lead NJ Transit, an effective, capable professional.

We hope that is the case. We also hope Hakim is someone who can and will stand up to Christie, who did nothing to improve mass transit in his first term. Perhaps Weinstein curried favor with Christie by going along with the governor's decision to kill the trans-Hudson rail project known as ARC and never publicly pushing for an alternative plan.

Hakim has led the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for more than three years. Before that, she was special counsel for capital construction for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. We do not know how passionate she is about mass transit, or whether her experience makes her well-suited to understand contracts and numbers and not trains, buses and commuters. We will have to wait and see.

We encourage Hakim to see for herself, to ride buses, light rail and rail across New Jersey. And we encourage her to dig deep into the system – taking the train from Newark to Trenton is hardly a challenge. While the snow is still deep at bus stops, she should see how hard it is for commuters to get to and from work. She should see the challenges commuters, particularly the elderly, face during winter at train stations without raised platforms.

Bergen County residents still have no light rail. The Secaucus Junction station, which is officially named after the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, is an underused asset. Amtrak passes through the station every day, yet it has only stopped there for the Super Bowl and to carry the remains of the late senator to his final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.

Additional Hudson tunnels are needed now, and yet there are no plans under way to construct tunnels that would optimistically be open in the next decade.

Big improvements cost big money. Hakim does not have that on hand. But information is free. If nothing else, Hakim should be quick to disseminate accurate and timely information to commuters during service disruptions. She should be on the front lines when there are major system failures.

Weinstein may have been good with the lobbyists and public officials who work the halls of the State House, but he was a disaster with commuters. The first allegiance of the executive director of NJ Transit should be to the people who ride the rails and buses. The governor uses an SUV or a helicopter; Hakim should remember that.